Good afternoon. Mozambique’s LNG projects are ramping up, as evidenced by a rash of procurement notices, supplier calls and preparatory contracts issued this week, as we report today. Sometimes, the news is in the ads.
The pattern is more important than any single notice. TotalEnergies’ Mozambique LNG project is preparing work at Afungi, while Mozambique Rovuma Venture, operator of Area 4, is also becoming visibly more active. That matters. For much of the public discussion around Cabo Delgado, the question of a restart has centred on TotalEnergies. The latest notices suggest Rovuma LNG is also beginning to swing into action.
That is welcome for Mozambique, if renewed mobilisation brings work, local contracts, tax revenue and wider economic activity. But Cabo Delgado has not become a simple operating environment while the gas companies were away. Zitamar sources in Quissanga report repeated insurgent movements through the district since early June, suggesting armed groups are using the area as a corridor toward positions in Macomia while taking food from agricultural zones. The same province that hosts Mozambique’s largest investment projects remains an active conflict zone.
Tom Bowker
Zitamar News
The risks are wider than the battlefield. This week, Zitamar and Forbidden Stories reported on an unpublished UN report and interviews alleging sexual exploitation by workers linked to the TotalEnergies-led project and sexual violence by Mozambican soldiers in Cabo Delgado. The allegations are serious, and contested by those implicated. They are also a reminder that restarting LNG requires scrutiny of communities, contractors, security forces and grievance systems, not just construction schedules and security perimeters.
Zitamar News
Mozambique needs the economic momentum that LNG can bring. Cabo Delgado also needs transparent information, accountable security, careful local-content management and serious attention to communities living around the projects and along insurgent routes.
For that reason, Zitamar will now begin sending periodic Cabo Delgado conflict updates through a dedicated newsletter. Readers who want to receive them can sign up by clicking Account in the top right of zitamar.com, hitting Manage next to Emails, and turning on the Zitamar Mozambique conflict updates newsletter. The fortnightly Mozambique Conflict Monitor update, produced alongside global conflict monitoring organisation ACLED, will also be sent through that list.
The contracts are starting to move. The conflict is moving too. We will be watching both.
Agenda:
- Today: Mozambican delegation led by Finance Minister Carla Loveira participates in annual meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group
- Tomorrow–Monday: Anamola’s National Convention, at which the party leader will be elected, with Venâncio Mondlane as the sole candidate
Also in the news:
- CTA warns business climate is worsening (AIM, Diário Económico, Evidências, MZNews, O País)
- Development bank urged to focus on productive investment (Diário Económico, Diário Económico, Diário Económico, AIM, MZNews)
- Fifteen Ethiopians intercepted in Zambézia (Folha de Maputo, Notícias)
- Four injured as police disperse Mondlane supporters in Nampula (AIM, Lusa)
- Mining industry warns new ownership rules may deter investors (Reuters)
